Just a Pass of the Baton
by kinnaaan
Summary: There has been a rip in the complex fabric of time. Fate has not been kind to Crystal Heart and Lyra Soul. Their roles have been swapped, and the universe has been reset with that modification in mind... Follow Lyra's confliction as she progresses through her journey to become recognized as her own human being; not a hollow replacement of the almighty Kris. REPOST.


**Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon.**

**Word count: 1,870**

**NOTE: This is a repost, because the old version had too many errors.**

**Whelp. I'm replaying my copy of HeartGold, and I've just been hit with a wave of inspiration. Since Lyra replaced Kris, and everybody hates Lyra because of it, I wanted to write something about it.**

**I've um.. never played Crystal (I've just skimmed through a few pages of Bulbapedia and watched a walkthrough video or two) and its been a while since I actually **_**finished **_**HG so... Please forgive me for any mistakes I made. Plus, this is my first fanfic EVER so... Ahem, anyway. I hope you like it!**

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><p><em><strong>Just a Pass of the Baton<strong>_

_**Chapter 1: Baton Pass**_

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><p><em>Seeing Silver and Giovanni argue wasn't the only thing I experienced when it came to time traveling. After I defeated Giovanni in the present, Celebi pulled me into a completely different timeline.<em>

**OoOoO**

I'm standing in a room that reminds me of my own bedroom, except everything is surrounded by a weird haze, like a camera with bad quality, compared to what I'm used to. Frantic, I look around for Ethan, but he's nowhere to be found. Maybe Celebi dropped him off elsewhere...?

I'm jerked out of my thoughts when I see a girl about my age jolt awake on her bed, like she's emerging from some strange dream. I tilt my head as she looks around frantically in the near-darkness. She hops off her bed and sprints for something – the light switch. I jump out of her way, but I realize, after she turns on the light, that she can't see me anyway. I'm invisible.

It turns out she's looking for the clock. Sighing, like she's relieved, she jumps back into her bed and falls unconscious immediately, the light still switched on.

From what I could tell, something about this girl reminded me of… _me._ She had pigtails – crooked, _blue_ pigtails – but pigtails all the same. She also slept with her hat on - a habit I thought only _I_ had the displeasure to have.

Wondering _what in the world_ Celebi wanted me to do in this strange universe, I sigh and gaze out her window. The first rays of sunlight could be seen just over the horizon. Looking back at the blue-haired girl, I wait patiently for her to wake up.

**OoOoO**

When the strange girl wakes up, she runs across her room and attempts to get a little gaming time on her PC and Wii before rushing downstairs. So not only did we look alike, but we also shared the same idiosyncrasies.

I follow her down the stairs (and although I stomp down the stairs like a Rhyhorn, the bluenette apparently can't _hear_ me any better than she can _see_ me).

A woman, who I assume is her mother, greets her when she reaches the bottom step. '_Kris,'_ she calls her.

As she converses her mom, I see that, more or less, she was given the same talk _I _was given when I was embarking on my first Pokemon adventure.

I begin to get suspicious and just a _little_ creeped out when she goes on the same exact errand I went was given back in _my_ timeline.

I keep watching... And watching... And watching. Not until after fateful Kris's encounter with Silver do I realize – I've been replaced. No – that's not it – I've been the one _doing_ the replacing.

And suddenly I have an urge to give this girl's life back. I don't know how I know, but I just _know_ – I took this fate away from her; I stole her timeline.

And all this time, I had been dancing about in my own happy-go-lucky Present without a care in the world.

**OoOoO**

I start to admire this _Kris._ As she goes on with her adventure, I can see the _major_ differences between us. She's so much _more_ than I'll ever be, what with her athletic and adventurous - but still mature - nature. She even kicks her pokeballs to release them, and she catches any and all pokemon with ease - usually managing to capture them on her first try.

Me, well…

Compared to her, I wear childish, cosplay-esque clothing (based off a certain character on the Wii that I refuse to say the name of) that only a five-year-old would wear, and a naïve, immature personality to boot. I've tried to strengthen my willpower and heart under Silver's taunting insults, but I have yet to accomplish even that. It takes me five tries before I can catch even one pokemon!

But even _I _can tell, though, that Kris is slightly lost and confused. Since I've been through her experiences, in a way... I decide to guide her throughout her journey.

But when I see Silver treat her warmly – more warmly then he'll ever treat _me –_I try not to get envious. Despite my title as Champion in my _own_ timeline, I don't think I'll ever be accepted or as loved as Kris... Because I'm the replacement; the poorly created substitute that nobody wants.

Still, I help her anyway, because I owe _that_ much to her - after all, you're going to take her lifetime away sooner or later.

She becomes Champion. I'm _damn_ proud of her; we were finally on the same level.

I see her celebrate with her mother, with the League, with the Gym Leaders, with _Silver_. I try even _harder_ not to get jealous. But I still fume whenever they look at each other... Shouldn't I have the same chances she has? After all, aren't we the same?

No, we're not. I know, in my heart, we aren't.

I'll never be her. I took her timeline from _her_, so it's never 'she'll never be me.' It's always; _I'll never be Kris._

**OoOoO**

I start to think she notices my presence. At least, she starts smiling in my general direction and saying,

"Thank you."

So we start to correspond. I send her telepathic messages, and she replies by writing things down on her notepad.

We begin to bond like sisters, and now I don't really have to _guide_ her anymore.

I don't tell her I'll replace her in a few years, though.

She defeats the eight gym leaders of Kanto _and _Red (without my help, because I hadn't defeated even one of them yet). Of course, I'm _still_ proud of her, and we rejoice together.

And then she starts dating Silver. He actually… _smiles._ He's never done that with me. Never.

But I'm happy for the two of them. After all, I was her, and she… _will be_ me. So maybe I have a chance.

She knows I'm from the future, but I haven't had the heart to tell her I'm her future _replacement_.

But knowing her cunning, I bet she's figured it out by now.

And when she finally asks me about it, I don't deny it.

Being Kris, she doesn't hold it against me. It does make things awkward between us, though.

**OoOoO**

Nine years have passed since the beginning of her adventure, and five years since she beat Red.

We're still talking, but not as much anymore. But we _both_ know her time is coming. _Our_ time is coming.

By now she's already told her mother, her friends… Well, everybody but _Silver_.

I've promised her I'd be there when she tells him... Heaven knows how he'll react.

She's twenty now, and he's twenty-one. Even _I_ can tell by the way he acts around her, that he wants to propose soon.

And that breaks my heart... _In more ways than one._

She tells him, and he looks _shattered._ I could never make him love me - or even _like_ me - enough for him to be sad like that… Only goes to show that Kris deserves so much _more_ than this.

For once, I don't envy her.

I can feel both of our souls slipping away as Kris and Silver embrace one last time.

"I'll never forget you, Kris."

Those are the last words I hear Silver utter before being sent away by the pull of Time.

In the realm between our timelines, Celebi appears out of nowhere, and expectantly looks at Kris and me.

As the seconds tick by, I feel my timeline getting closer and closer. I finally break the silence. "Kris... I... I'm really sorry about _all_ of this."

"It isn't your fault. This wasn't your choice..." She looks down at her hands. "I think Celebi will send me to the time _just_ before you started your adventure, just like you were sent to the beginning of _mine_." She smiles. "It's time for me to return the favor... And guide your past self."

I take a moment to process that information. "But... You don't have to help me. _I_ may not have taken your life away, specifically, but it was taken away _because_ of me."

She looks back up and shakes her head. "I don't care about that. You had no obligation to help _me -_ a _complete_ stranger - with my adventure. But you did."

I gasp as Kris's figure starts to disappear. As she disintegrates, she gives one last smile - it was a weak smile, that of woman's when her heart breaks and her entire life is torn to shreds - but a smile nonetheless. "Thank you..."

Those are the last words I hear her say. In the moments before Celebi drops me off in my present time - in the moments I see right past my _own_ hands to see the swirling vortex of memories behind it - I realize that Kris was there the _entire_ time I was on my adventure, in my own timeline.

"No," I say to the empty space she had occupied just a few seconds ago. "Thank _you._"

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><p><strong>So how was it? I'm actually too lazy to do any more research to see if everything is correct or not, so yeah. If there's any inaccurate stuff then, well, oops... Yeah, I'm horrible, I know.<strong>

**So if I made the whole time-travel thingy too complicated to understand, here's a summary:**

**'Celebi sends Lyra to the time of Pokemon Crystal after the HGSS Celebi Event. Years pass in the **_**Crystal**_ **timeline... Then it's time for Kris to leave her timeline; she says goodbye, and she and Lyra are sent across time back to the **_**HGSS **_**by Celebi. Kris then has to go to Lyra's **_**Past**_ **(from when Lyra was just beginning her journey) while Lyra goes back to her normal Present. So, if it makes sense, the person who was guiding Present Lyra was Past Kris. Present Kris (the one who appears in this story) is guiding Future Lyra.'**

**I threw in some Redemption (Kris x Silver gameverse) and SoulsilverShipping (Lyra x Silver). Don't get me wrong, I actually ship SoulSilver, not Redemption. I also ship Newbark (Kris x Ethan/Gold) but since Gold doesn't actually appear in **_**Crystal, **_**I just paired Kris and Silver together to give Lyra some character development.**

**ANYWAY, Reviews are welcome! And I'd love some tips! Thank you for taking the time to read this! And again, this is my first fanfic, so constructive criticism welcome!**


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